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[penname21]

First of all, hats off to the J River folks for making a great product.  I think most users will agree that we like it because of the flexibility it gives us.  However, and this is a feature request, can't we have an option to hide/display/minimize the Display and Action windows?  Some people love the Display window, I NEVER use it and spend a lot of time closing it.  Similarly, for every one time I use the action window, I spend 99 clicks minimizing it.  There have been many posts on this subject but I have not yet seen any solutions or feature additions.  Seems like a simple fix.  Again, great product, but I like it most of all because of the control it gives me.  If I can control these two windows, I'd like it that much more.

[JimH]

Some people love the Display window, I NEVER use it and spend a lot of time closing it. 

Please try the settings in Tools/Options/General/Behavior.

The Action Window won't change.  It was found to be extremely helpful when we did user testing.  I'm aware that some people don't like it, but it's not possible to design a player that everyone agrees on.

[benn600]

You may use it if you (for music) add cover art for your music.  It's very easy to pull cover art from the internet through the cover art context menu.  The cover art looks very nice.  That was one pleasing new feature in v12...that it opened on its own more often.  And action window is vital to MC's features!  That's where you access a lot of the most important actions.  Why do you bother closing them?  Just leave them open and ignore them.  If you have a large enough screen resolution and not too many playlists, view schemes, etc., it should not even take much space.

[Alex B]

I spend 99 clicks minimizing it.

You can minimize Action Window by clicking the button in the top right-corner. Only one click is needed.

The small display in the lower left corner pops up if you are outside the Playing Now and you start playback (Edit: and you have not set MC to jump to Playing Now when playback starts). Again only one click is needed for minimizing it. It stays minimized until playback is stopped and restarted.

In Playing Now you can hide the main display by dragging the horizontal splitter bar all the way up. It stays there until you change its position again.

Some users also hide the complete leftmost part of MC's screen (including the Tree and Action Window) when they don't need it. You can double-click the vertical splitter bar for quickly hiding or restoring this screen part.

[benn600]

Or single click the small arrows where you are unable to resize the bar.

[dcwebman]

I spend 99 clicks minimizing it.

I'm sorry but for years there have been many people requesting it and I am one. Yes, it's one click once you get the program open but if you close MC or reinstall a new version, there's another click. On my 17" display, I don't have a problem with leaving it open, but on my 14" widescreen laptop, there just isn't that much vertical room so I'm always having to minimize it.

Whenever there is a discrepancy about a feature, an option is usually put in that can then satisfy both parties. I'm not sure why this hasn't been done for this. Make the default work like it does now, but have an option to remember the current state so the next time I open the program it is minimized.
 

[benn600]

Why not add a right-click menu on the minimize button that allows users to have it default to minimized.  So if they reinstall MC or whatever, they would have a CLICK to open it up...it would normally default closed.

Yes, adding features can make things very confusing and too complicated.  However, creating a clean user interface with good, intuitive design can make lots of features fit well and not hassle normal users.

[mark_h]

I agree that the display window is a pain (or should that be pane .  It doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose and only clutters the window.  I'd also like to see an option to permanently minimise the Action Window .  Given a choice between always seeing the Display window and the Action window I would take the Action window.  All I ever do with the Display window is clear it so that I can get to the action window.

Cheers,

Mark

[prod]

Sorry, I like it, and find it useful!

Perhaps it would benefit from some work; being able to customise what's in it, and choose how it's displayed (if at all). Maybe that's planned for the next major version.

Got to say I'd leave it how it is even if I could configure it, it does the job for me.

[mark_h]

Prod, could I ask what you use it for and how you find it is useful?  Perhaps there is something we are missing?

Thanks,

Mark

[benn600]

Display window is the best for viewing cover art while listening to music.  iTunes and many other players have a pane for viewing cover art that is out of the way and doesn't really take away space.  I for one have about 5 playlists and a very high resolution monitor (1920x1200) so I have plenty of vertical space to hold it...plus, I scanned my cover art in by hand so I have cover art for all but about 1 or 2 CDs.  Therefore, I want to see it as much as possible.  Plus, when viewing pictures you can almost set the display window to show you a slide show while working -- not a bad idea.

Why do you find it not useful?  Do you not have any cover art?  Do you not care about cover art?  Does it even popup if there is no cover art present?

[mark_h]

I have cover art for all my albums, but am only interested in seeing it on the Playing Now scheme or in browsing schemes that I create. Often while the jukebox is playing I find myself wanting to change tag details and find the "Display" window is in the way.  I'd much rather the action window took priority in my system.

Basically I like to be in control of what is presented to me in any software, not just MC, and being forced to see the Display window is, for me at least, generally more of a pain than it is useful.

Mark

[hit_ny]

That was one pleasing new feature in v12...that it opened on its own more often. 

Funnily enough that display window popping up bugs me the most with v12. Always popping up when i go to the tree. Why  ?, i need as much vertical space as i can get to move stuff around there and always have to 'X" it.

If you have a big screen, then you don't mind it, but for smaller screens its always an extra click to hide. I have album art displayed as a large icon in PN, no need for visualizations as its the best as far as screen estate is concerned.

Nuking the AW is easy just ALt+Enter, you will find that much faster than the mouse. That display window..is immune to this tho.

[prod]

Prod, could I ask what you use it for and how you find it is useful?  Perhaps there is something we are missing?

I use it to select the actions available inside it i.e. Burn Disc, Rip Disc, Sync, Camera, Build Playlist, Tag, and whatever else. I realise these actions are available elsewhere but I find it's a good focal point to what I'm able to do at any particular moment.

On occasion I prefer to use the space for the tree view, in which case I minimise it.